"You can do it, Hal. You can fight it."
Hal, or whoever inhabited Hal's body at the moment, barely paused. The gun in his hand was still pointed squarely at his little brother's chest. A small target. Deceptively small for its importance.
"Give me the gun", their father ordered, for which he earned staring down the barrel of the gun himself. Hal knew that wouldn't deter him, though. Only one thing really would.
The gun snapped back in its original position, and the renewed threat of Matt's heart getting pierced by a bullet at any time sent a shivering shock-wave through the room.
"No. Y-you're not gonna hurt him", Tom said. "You're not gonna hurt your family! Hal!"
Tom's statements still all sounded more like orders than statements to Hal, and the surge of anger that invoked in him was all it took.
Anger. Searing flashing anger tore through his body and pulled the trigger. Hal himself hadn't even processed that it had been done when the body hit the floor.
That small but simultaneously deafening thud awoke something in Hal, though.
Barely had the life left his little brother's eyes before Hal pressed the cold metal to his temple, hard, in punishment of his unthinkable crime.
"I'm sorry."
The knowledge that Matt couldn't hear his apology was all he needed.
At least Matt was spared of hearing the shot.